


Let Them Stare

by vipertooths



Series: Laws of Attraction [2]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Academy Era, Alternate Universe, Blanket Permission, Established Relationship, Fluff, POV James T. Kirk, Starfleet Academy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-01
Updated: 2018-11-01
Packaged: 2019-08-13 23:05:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16481471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vipertooths/pseuds/vipertooths
Summary: A new school year, a new friend, a blossoming relationship, and an academy-wide misunderstanding.[ Part of a series, but can be read as a standalone. ]





	Let Them Stare

It's been a week since Spock joined Starfleet Academy and still students continue to stare. You'd think for such a diverse group of people who plan on going out into space to meet even _more_ diverse groups of people, the sight of a Vulcan wouldn't be all that interesting. Sure, Vulcans are a pretty private race of people, which makes them seem mysterious and interesting, and _sure_ , Spock is the only Vulcan on the roster, but it still gets on Jim's nerves.

"Doesn't all the staring bother you?"

Spock glances up from his food. "Negative. Is it distressing you?"

"I just don't like the way they look at you." He stabs a noodle on his tray with a bit more force than necessary and stuffs it into his mouth. "Like you're some lab experiment they're trying to figure out."

"You need not be offended on my behalf, Jim."

Jim sighs and reaches across the table to steal a cucumber slice from Spock's salad. Spock doesn't react, but he catches the wide eyes of someone who's turned in their seat to watch them and flips them the bird.

Spock admonishes him with a simple, "Jim."

He doesn't apologize, instead offering a greeting to Sulu, who takes a seat at his left.

"I'm totally dying trying to keep up with the coursework this year," Sulu answers.

Spock raises an eyebrow, but it's testament to how well he's assimilating to a life surrounded by Humans that he doesn't comment on the hyperbole.

Jim slaps Sulu lightly on the back. "We're all dying, pal. That's just how it is."

"I resent that."

"We all resent that, pal. That's just how it is."

Sulu rolls his eyes and waves a fork his way, but doesn't get to reply as a girl steps up to their table and stares at them expectantly.

"Mind if I sit here?"

Jim struggles to recall her name as Sulu says she's welcome to, but comes up blank. He knows her from _somewhere_ , but he's not really sure where.

"My name is Zara," she says, notably looking between Spock and Sulu as she does. It's clear she expects him to know her name already.

 _Well, fake it till you make it,_ he thinks, plastering on a smile. "Hey, how are things going?"

Spock looks at him curiously and Jim thanks the stars that he doesn't saying something like, "You two are acquainted?" Maybe he can just feel the silent urgency thrumming through Jim for him to stay quiet.

"Pretty good so far, but things can only go downhill from here." She punctuates the statement with a joking smile.

"You're right about that," Sulu says, expression going mournful and distant as he no doubt remembers whatever project or paper is currently killing him.

Jim gives him a sympathetic grimace and then spends the rest of their lunch focusing most of his attention on trying to figure out where he knows the girl from. It gets him nowhere, even as the niggling thought follows him into the hallway.

"Is something weighing on you, Jim?"

He glances up in surprise and shakes his head. "No, why?"

"You have been uncharacteristically quiet since Cadet Zara joined us in the cafeteria."

"Oh, yeah, I was just trying to figure out how I know her. It's bothering me. Like having a piece of popcorn kernel stuck in your teeth, you know?"

"I do not," Spock says gravely and Jim shoves his shoulder lightly.

"You know what I _mean_. It's just bothering me not being able to remember."

They stop outside of Jim's classroom, which Spock has taken to walking him to. "Could you not simply ask her?"

"That would be rude, Spock."

It's clear that the Vulcan does not understand why, but it's not the time to explain Human sociological behaviors.

"I'll explain it to you later. You don't want to be late."

Spock nods and surreptitiously touches his fingers to Jim's before turning and walking away. Jim stands, dumbfounded, in the hallway for a few seconds before entering class. He tries to hide his grin, but it's a losing battle.

+

Zara joins them again the next day, and the day after that, and Jim stops trying to remember however their paths crossed in the past. She's majoring in Exoarchaeology, which Spock finds particularly interesting. In turn, she is especially curious about Vulcan, leading Jim to step into their conversation semi-regularly to politely tell her when a question oversteps or what subjects shouldn't be asked about. He doesn't miss the looks of frustration that pass her face, but she never pushes the subject.

He listens to them with half an ear as he finishes a paper for Theoretical Physics with one hand and mindlessly scoops food into his mouth with the other.

"Do Vulcans ever do exchange programs?"

"There is a program in place to transport Vulcan children off world for a short duration for a more immersive learning experience, implemented by my father two years after becoming Ambassador to Earth. Similarly, there are options for others to study on Vulcan, but they are seldom sought out."

"Have you ever been to Vulcan, Jim?"

He glances up for just a second at the sound of his name and then redirects it back to his writing. "I haven't."

"You've been friends with a Vulcan for your entire life and haven't visited his home planet?"

His brows furrow and he finally sets his pencil down to properly look at her. Her words were a friendly rebuke, but there was something more assessing about her expression. "Hasn't been in the cards, I'm afraid. Hopefully, I'll get to visit when I have a ship of my own."

Her eyebrows fly up for a split second. "You sound pretty sure about that. That you'll have your own ship, I mean. Why's that?"

"We all have something to prove," he answers, knowing it's not really an answer at all, and gives her a wry smile. He's all too aware of Spock's gaze on him and sends the Vulcan a wink. Spock looks at him blandly, unimpressed. The look clearly communicates that they still will be having a discussion about this later. He wishes he could just reach over and put his hand to Spock's and transfer his thoughts that way. Somehow, it seems less intimidating than saying the words aloud.

He doesn't want to physically put the words out there, to say that most of his motivation comes from the urge to live up to expectations of his family name, to not let Pike's recommendation of him to the academy be proven unwise.

For that first year he was here, he thought he was going to crack under the pressure of it all. He had overheard one of his professors refer to him as a shooting star, a student who burns bright but quick. It was yet another person he had to prove wrong.

Spock's enrollment in Starfleet Academy was a welcomed relief. Somehow, he was sure he could get through the next years of Command track with Spock by his side.

Affection curls around his chest and thinks he would lean over and pull his boyfriend into a kiss if not for the offense it would cause to his Vulcan sense of propriety. He settles instead on pressing his leg to Spock's under the table.

+

"I miss Bones," he says, setting down his PADD and leaning into Spock's shoulder. Spock closes the book he's reading and looks down at Jim somberly.

"Were you unable to contact him last night?"

Jim sighs and snuggles further into Spock's side, immeasurably glad he can do that now. He talks to Bones almost every Saturday, but that doesn't really make up for his absence. He'd tried getting Bones to join Starfleet, but Bones had assured him it would be a cold day in Hell before that happened. "I did. But I still miss him."

"I understand," Spock says quietly.

Jim blinks in surprise. "You do?"

"I can admit to a certain degree of...longing while on Vulcan for my friends who remained on Earth."

He smiles widely. "We missed you too. At least we'll have Uhura next year."

Spock raised a curious eyebrow. "Indeed?"

"She told me she's going to send in an application. Which will be accepted, if Starfleet knows what's good for it. And she'll definitely ace the entry exams, because she's _Uhura_."

"I do not understand why you and Nyota insist on referring to each other by your family names when you are both aware of the other's first name."

"It's a time-honored tradition."

He can nearly feel the dubiety rolling off Spock in waves.

+

"You know, Jim Kirk, you really changed from last year."

Jim looks up from where his head is resting on his forearms which are resting on the table. "Oh yeah?"

Zara studies him, her own hand resting on her palm as she stares down at him. "You were a bit of a live wire. I'm surprised you even passed your classes, what with all the _extracurriculars_ you got up to."

Jim will later blame his sleep-deprived brain for not leaving the conversation there and instead making an inquisitive noise. "What do you mean?"

"I don't think there was a party held last year that you weren't at, not that I have a place to judge, really. First year is really stressful. And then all the girls..."

Jim tensed. He hadn't really talked to Spock about his various first year sexcapades. At all. Not that he and Spock were dating then, but it's probably something he should have mentioned in the months they've been together. His type tended to gravitate toward outgoing, emotional, feminine types, and he gave up trying to convince himself he wasn't purposefully hooking up with people who were polar opposites of Spock about halfway into the second semester.

Still, it wasn't that big of a deal. He knew Spock wouldn't hold it against him. Probably. And then Zara spoke again.

"Not that I can really judge, _being_ one of those girls."

It clicks into place startlingly fast, why she had approached them to begin with, all those weeks ago, and why he seemed to recognize her. She must see the sudden panic on his face, because she bursts out laughing.

"Oh my god, you didn't even remember, did you? You've spent all this time just pretending like you did. Maybe you haven't changed as much as I thought." She throws a fry at him, which smacks him in the forehead and lands dejectedly back on the table. He never thought he'd relate so much to a piece of fried potato.

Still, he manages to force a weak chuckle out. When he risks the glance, he finds that Spock isn't looking his way, attention on his meal.

+

Things aren't strained after that. According to Spock. Because it would be highly illogical for him to feel any type of way about finding out his friend-slash-acquaintance had previously had sex with his boyfriend.

Jim can't help but disagree. It's like he's feeling upset at himself on Spock's behalf, which is just a strange thing to be going through.

And it's not long after that he starts to notice the way Spock reacts when he and Zara are together. As much as Spock would like to pretend that something so trivial wouldn't affect him, Jim sees a different picture painted with the little things: the flickered glance when Zara's hand accidentally brushes over Jim's while they're exchanging a soda, the eyebrow twitch when Zara makes an innuendo, the tautness of his shoulders when they walk into his dorm room to find Zara lounging on his bed.

It's not as if these sorts of things didn't happen before; it's just that Spock's seeing them from a different light now. Jim feels increasingly offended as the days go by. If Spock trusts Jim, then he shouldn't feel threatened by Jim being friendly with Zara.

It's not until the day that Zara tries to kiss him that he understands Spock sort of had the right to be wary the entire time. When he pulls away from her, there's a few frozen moments where he can see her realizing that she's misread the situation, and he furiously goes over all of their interactions to see if he'd accidentally lead her on.

"I'm so sorry," she says, a blush creeping its way up her neck and cheeks. "I thought maybe we could— Sorry. God, I'm so stupid."

"Hey, no, you're not. I'm sorry if I gave you the wrong idea."

She shakes her head vehemently. "No, it's my fault. I just assumed, since we'd done it before, and we've been hanging out... I should have asked."

"You're a great girl, Zara, really. Anyone would be lucky to have you."

She seems to calm down some and gives him a self-deprecating smile. "Yeah? That's pretty rich coming from the guy who just rejected me."

She isn't trying to make him feel guilty, he can tell—her eyes are as warm as always—but it still bothers him that she doesn't seem to be taking Spock into consideration at all. That's just pretty fucked up, considering she's _his_ friend too.

"Well, I do have a _boyfriend_ , Zara," he says, voice edging on sharp.

Her face slackens completely and he thinks that perhaps she'd just forgotten about Spock in the heat of the moment, until she finally opens her mouth and says, "You have a _boyfriend_?" He nearly chokes on his own spit.

"About this tall," he says, holding his hand up between them. "Bowl cut. Pointy ears. I'm sure you can't have missed him, what with the fact that you talk to him _every day_."

" _Spock_ is your _boyfriend_? Since _when_?"

He throws his hands up with a huff. "Since he first enrolled here! How did you not know this?"

"Nobody knows it! The only thing stopping a fourth of the student body from asking him out is that they're too scared to!"

"What the hell?"

"Well, it's not exactly like you guys give any outward sign of it. Oh god, now I feel even worse about trying to kiss you. I'm a horrible friend."

He waves away her guilt, more focused on this new information about these students that are apparently pining after his boyfriend. "How am I supposed to get people to understand that we're together?"

She stops her fretting to send him a wicked grin. "Well, I can think of one way."

+

The next day at lunch, he grabs hold of Spock's uniform and kisses him in the middle of the cafeteria. It's sure to start the staring up again, which is a shame, but the thought is short lived when Spock kisses back.

When they pull apart, there is a bit of green along Spock's cheeks and Zara makes a whooping sound to their left. Jim grins at him, ignoring the soft wave of murmuring that is now traveling through the student body.

"Am I to assume there was a reason behind this public display?" Spock asks, his blush already gone.

Jim glances toward Zara, who gives them two thumbs up. "It's kind of a funny story."

Spock follows his gaze and raises an eyebrow. No words are spoken, but he can read the expression anyway.

_If you say so, Jim._

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much to my new beta, squirellock, who I will unabashedly pull into the spirk fandom. uwu
> 
> And thanks to my readers! Love you guys! I do plan on adding more to this series, with future fics having more plot to them. 0:-) Bones, Uhura, and the rest of the crew will all converge again in the future!
> 
> also how do people come up with good fic titles, i'm so bad at it....


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